Android remains the OS of choice for almost 70 per cent of Europe, compared to
Apple's iOS' 19 per cent

Around 68.5 per cent of smartphone sales across Europe in the three months to January 2014 were for Android-equipped handsets, compared to Apple's iOS' 19 per cent.

The most popular manufacturer of Android smartphones was Samsung, with 39.5 per cent of all sales, compared to Sony's 9.4 per cent, LG's 6.9 per cent, new brand Wiko's 2 per cent and Motorola's 1.7 per cent.

Windows Phone was the fastest growing OS across Europe, with a share of 10.1 per cent of the market. Much of the success has been driven by strong sales of Nokia's budget model Lumia 520, which was the fourth best-selling handset in Britain.

Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, said: “Nokia has continued its successful tactic of sucking up remaining featurephone owners across Europe. Even in Britain, where smartphone penetration is at 70%, there are over 14 million featurephone consumers for it to target.

"At some point Nokia will have to start making serious inroads into the smartphone competition, but for the time being its strategy in Europe is working. Crucial for Nokia will be its ability to keep low-end owners loyal and upgrade them to mid to high-end models.”

According to the report by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android accounts for 55.2 per cent of the population's OS, compared to 30.7 per cent for iOS, Windows' 11.3 per cent, BlackBerry's 2.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent opting for other systems.

However, a new report by mobile performance testing site SOASTA found that iOS was the OS of choice for the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Almost 90 per cent (86 per cent) of devices sold in Great Britain were smartphones, which have a market penetration of 70 per cent.

China is driving demand for phablets, where almost a third of smartphones sold in the past three months had a screen size of over 5".